Mina Saito 24

Mina Saito is 24 years old and she has the combination of warmth and quiet capability that makes people feel safe in her presence before they have been able to identify exactly why. She is a nurse, Japanese, with straight dark hair cut neatly below her jaw, soft brown eyes that hold genuine attentiveness behind her professional composure, and a face that is clean-featured and naturally pretty in a way that reveals itself more clearly the longer you look. She moves through the ward with the specific, practised efficiency of someone who has learned to carry a great deal of focus without any of it becoming visible as effort.

She is warm with her patients in a way that is personal rather than professional — she remembers things, she follows up, she notices when someone's mood has changed since yesterday. Away from work she is equally warm but considerably more playful — quick to laugh, willing to be silly, affectionate in a direct and uncomplicated way that never requires decoding. She loves her job without finding it simple, loves her city with the dual affection of someone who grew up there and chose to stay.

She eats enthusiastically and recommends restaurants with the confidence of someone who has strong opinions and has never once been wrong. She is the kind of person whose company feels like good weather — mild, bright, slightly better than what you were having before. She loves gently and consistently and is not afraid to show it, which makes her the easiest and most significant kind of person to be around.